Re: LOTR and 20th Century Western European Prejudices

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jeffrey C. Dege) writes:

> On Wed, 3 Dec 2003 05:42:55 +0000, phil hunt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >On 03 Dec 2003 04:33:19 GMT, Jeffrey C. Dege <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >>
> >>Do you know how long it takes to fuel up a tank using jerry cans?

> >No, but I do know that the British Army uses them, therefore it must 
> >be a sensible thing to do. (For certain values of sensible).

> Modern tanks have a 500 gallon fuel tanks, and can burn 900 gallons a day.

> That's 180 5-gallon jerry cans, per tank, per day.

> The British Army may use jerry cans, but they don't use them for refueling
> vehicles.

Jerry can is 20 litres, the Challenger has 1800 litre fuel tank
or 90 jerry cans - consistent with your numbers.

Upending a 20 litre can fuel will free flow out in ~ 100 seconds,
so a couple of hours for total refueling the hard way.

If they require two refills per day, then you're out of action
4 hours out of 24. 
Figuring the fuel depot is back from the combat lines, you're
probably losing 2-4 hours already in transport and waiting,
so if nothing else works, you can keep a tank fighting 16 hours a day
by refueling it from a stack of 5 gallon cans.
That's probably more than the crew can stand.

If you have the man power to hump a 200 cans per day per tank,
then you have the sloggers fuel the hard way while the crew
rests and eats.  Net loss in combat availability is 10-15%,
better than having a tank stranded without fuel and a 100% loss
because the 20,000 liter powered tanker couldn't make the last 50 miles.

Be nicer to have pressurised high flow pumps, but needs must.